The upshot is that abstractions in science are not and can never be indifferent to the reality of God or a universe under God. Each abstraction in science will imply, even if unconsciously, some conception of the unity or identity of the thing abstracted relative to God and to the universal community of beings. The God-world distinction as disclosed in the act of creation shapes the primitive nature of all distinctions, and hence all abstractions, in the cosmos. Indeed, every distinction and abstraction most basically implies a sense of the God-world relation. . . . (full text)

Caritas in veritate takes up the complicated question of technology in its last chapter. Benedict of course acknowledges that technology “enables us to exercise dominion over matter” and to “improve our conditions of life,” and in this way goes to “the heart of the vocation of human labor” (n. 69). The relevant point, however, is that “technology is never merely technology” (n. 69). It always invokes some sense of the order of man’s naturally given relations to God and others. Technology thus, rightly conceived, must be integrated into the call to holiness, indeed into the covenant with God, implied in this order of relations (cf. n. 69): integrated into the idea of creation as something first given to man, as gift, “not something self-generated” (n. 68) or produced by man.

Here again we see the importance of the family. It is inside the family that we first learn a “technology” that respects the dignity of the truly weak and vulnerable—the just-conceived and the terminally-ill, for example—for their own sake. It is inside the family, indeed the family as ordered to worship, that we first learn the habits of patient interiority necessary for genuine relationships: for the relations that enable us to see the truth, goodness, and beauty of others as given (and also to maintain awareness of “the human soul’s ontological depths, as probed by the saints”: n. 76). It is inside the family that we can thus learn the limits of the dominant social media of communication made available by technology, which promote surface movements of consciousness involving mostly the gathering of bits of information, and foster inattention to man in his depths and his transcendence as created by God. It is in the family that we first become open to the meaning of communication in its ultimate and deepest reality as a dia-logos of love that is fully revealed by God in the life, and thus including also the suffering, of Jesus Christ (cf. n. 4). Read the full article.

﻿Charles Péguy once said that the integrity of man and his work demands “staying in place,” and suffering and silence. Just as the right relation between eternity and time demands silence, in other words, so does it demand “staying in place.” “Staying in place” in the first instance does not mean simply not moving around in a physical sense. For if God as Creator can be found anywhere in his creation, then he can surely be found when one moves from one place to another. However, we must avoid confusing the finding of God anywhere with finding him nowhere in particular. We do so only by truly being in a place, through the interior stillness that alone permits depth of presence. “Staying in place,” in a word, is but stillness now expressed in the form of space: it signals the depth, hence genuine incarnation, of presence, which occurs only in singular persons in singular times and places, in the opening of these singularities to eternity. There is no access to heaven except by sinking proportionately more deeply into the earth, taking on its flesh here and now. . . . [full text]

The Summer 2010 Communio treats the theme of “The Nature of Experience.” The issue publishes a collection of the papers presented at the conference by the same name that took place at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Washington, DC in December 2009.

The current issue of Communio focuses on the Paschal Mystery. Read the Introduction here. Articles include:

José Granados. Risen Time: Easter as the Source of HistoryJean-Pierre Batut. Believing in the Resurrection, or: The Logic of LoveDenis Farkasfalvy. Reconstructing MariologyKeith Lemna. Mythopoetic Thinking and the Truth of ChristianityPhilippe Richard. Romans 8 in Under Satan’s Sun: Bernanos’ Vision of Man and the WorldHans Urs von Balthasar. Vocation (Retrieving the Tradition)Thomas Esposito. The Way From Emmaus to Us (Notes and Comments)David L. Schindler. Regarding Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Unions (A Word From the Editor)

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Current Issue: Liturgy and Culture (Winter 2012)

Communio, a journal of Catholic theology and culture, was founded in 1972 by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, Henri de Lubac, and Jean Danielou, among others.
The journal is present in 16 countries and languages. The English-language edition of Communio is located in Washington, D.C. and is published quarterly.